Ontario’s Municipal Act requires municipalities to pretend to listen to residents during annual budget processes.
The City of Hamilton has given up on even trying to do that.
Every part of the public feedback process is a farce.
Instead of releasing meaningful budget information, City Council bought a budget simulator game.
The City’s annual budget public delegations used to be held in the evening, which was convenient for residents but not for City Hall or Council.
In the past, Hamiltonians were given time to digest and understand the entire budget.
This Council term ended that. The City’s budget book summary is now released one week before public delegations. The public no longer gets to see the departmental budgets.
Councillors Do Not Show Up
Today’s budget meeting began late due to a lack of quorum.
Only seven members showed up on time: M. Wilson (Ward 1), Kroetsch (Ward 2), Nann (Ward 3), Danko (Ward 8), Clark (Ward 9), Cassar (Ward 12), and McMeekin (Ward 15).
Mayor Horwath, Jackson (Ward 6), and Pauls (Ward 7) arrived later. Francis (Ward 4) briefly logged in via video conference.
At most, 10 of 16 members of Council were listening at any point. Most of the meeting, it was eight or nine.
The lowest attendance was seven shortly after 5:00 p.m.
Some members of Council are in Toronto at the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association Conference.
No Harm? Council Isn’t Listening Anyway
There’s an argument to be made Council’s non-attendance is a non-issue: after all, they are not listening to public input.
Not so: good governance still matters.
The councillors’ inability to attend meetings betrays their ongoing inability to wrestle with the issues they must address.
Today’s meeting involved numerous examples of councillors debating delegates and attempting to embarrass people with whom they disagree.
As is read at the beginning of each Council meeting, “questions of the delegates are for clarification only.”
Council needs to listen to delegates. Passive listening is the bare minimum expectation.
They do not have to agree with delegates. They need not implement any of the delegate suggestions, nor even like the people delegating.
We’re halfway through the 2022-26 Council term, and it seems the promise of better has turned into the bitter taste of disappointment.
Production Details
v. 1.0.0
Published: January 20, 2025
Last updated: January 20, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
Some members of Council are in Toronto at the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association Conference. Yeah Hwang was attending the conference…. why? Good question she’s representing ward 4… I don’t see any fields or cows to make Ward 4 “rural”
The fact she’s missing budget meetings to go to a conference is concerning.
The delegation process is flawed. Delegates are given 5 minutes only, regardless of content. If they know enough they can ask for an additional 5, by vote of Council. I was asked to reduce a 20-minute presentation to 10 minutes. I was there to show Council how to save $190 million and improve the survival rate of the trees they will be planting for the next 50 years. Apparently not worth an extra 10 minutes. I was booked to share the same information at the Climate Change Citizen’s Advisory Board meeting the following week, but according to City by-laws, if you have presented to one committee, you have presented to all of them. So 10 councillors listened politely and thanked me for my effort. No interest so far in saving $190 million.